5S\q 

)ZSiWA 

qis .HE 











_j, -iCA. 





000014=15215 







Class iPS^^Si^ 
Book_S)2^53tV^ 



COPXRIGKT DEPOSm 



-V 



THE HEART of a WOMAN 

AND OTHER POEMS 



THE HEART of a WOMAN 

AND OTHER POEMS 



BY 

GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON 

»> 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE 




BOSTON 

THE CORNHILL COMPANY 

1918 



Copyright, 1918 
5v The Cornhill Company 



All rights rfservfd 






* 



OCT-959IR 

Qci.A50;r777 ,w 



TO 



INTRODUCTION 

The poems in this book are intensely femi- 
nine and for me this means more than any- 
thing else that they are deeply human. We 
are yet scarcely aware, in spite of our boasted 
twentieth-century progress, of what lies 
deeply hidden, of mystery and passion, of 
domestic love and joy and sorrow, of romantic 
visions and practical ambitions, in the heart 
of a woman. The emancipation of woman is 
yet to be wholly accomplished; though 
woman has stamped her image on every age 
of the world's history, and in the heart of 
almost every man since time began, it is only 
a little over half of a century since she has 
either spoke or acted with a sense of freedom. 
During this time she has made little more 
than a start to catch up with man in the 
wonderful things he has to his credit; and yet 
all that man has to his credit would scarcely 
have been achieved except for the devotion 
and love and inspiring comradeship of woman. 

Here, then, is lifted the veil, in these 
poignant songs and lyrics. To look upon 
what is revealed is to give one a sense of 
infinite sympathy; to make one kneel in 

[vii] 



spirit to the marvelous patience, the wonder- 
ful endurance, the persistent faith, which are 
hidden in this nature. 

The heart of a woman falls back with the night. 
And enters some alien cage in its plight, 
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars 
While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars. 

sings the poet. And 

The songs of the singer 

Are tones that repeat 
The cry of the heart 

Till it ceases to beat. 

This verse just quoted is from " The Dreams 
of the Dreamer," and with the previous quo- 
tation tells us that this woman's heart is keyed 
in the plaintive, knows the sorrowful agents 
of life and experience which knock and enter 
at the door of dreams. But women have 
made the saddest songs of the world, Sappho 
no less than Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 
Ruth the Moabite poetess gleaning in the 
fields of Boaz no less than Amy Levy, the 
Jewess who broke her heart against the Lon- 
don pavements; and no less does sadness 
echo its tender and appealing sigh in these 
songs and lyrics of Georgia Douglas Johnson. 

VIH J 



But sadness is a kind of felicity with woman, 
paradoxical as it may seem; and it is so be- 
cause through this inexplicable felicity they 
touched, intuitionally caress, reality. 

So here engaging life at its most reserved 
sources, whether the form or substance 
through which it articulates be nature, or the 
seasons, touch of hands or lips, love, desire, 
or any of the emotional abstractions which 
sweep like fire or wind or cooling water 
through the blood, Mrs. Johnson creates just 
that reality of woman's heart and experience 
with astonishing raptures. It is a kind of 
privilege to know so much about the secrets 
of woman's nature, a privilege all the more to 
be cherished when given, as in these poems, 
with such exquisite utterance, with such a 
lyric sensibility. 

' William Stanley Braithwaite. 

Cambridge^ Massachusetts. 



lix] 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Heart of a Woman 1 

The Dreams of the Dreamer 2 

Gossamer 3 

Sympathy 4 

Contemplation 5 

Dead Leaves 6 

Dawn . 7 

Elevation 8 

Peace 9 

Whither? 10 

Quest 11 

Mate 12 

Emblems 13 

Mirrored 14 

Repulse 15 

Query 16 

Pent 17 

Pages from Life 18 

Recall 19 

Gethsemane 20 

Impelled 21 

Eventide 22 

Thrall 23 

Youth 24 

Joy 25 

Posthumous 26 

Omega 27 

Tears and Kisses 28 

Isolation 29 

Where.? 30 

[xi] 



PAGE 

Tired 31 

Smothered Fires 32 

The Measure 33 

Inevitably 34 

Modulations 35 

Memory 36 

Rhythm 37 

Gilead 38 

Foredoom 39 

Whene'er I Lift My Eyes to Bliss 40 

Despair 41 

When I Am Dead 42 

Supreme 43 

In Quest 44 

Recompense 45 

Poetry 46 

What Need Have I for Memory? 47 

A Fantasy . 48 

Souvenir 49 

Illusions SO 

Transpositions 51 

The Willow 52 

Devastation S3 

Springtime 54 

Gloamtide 55 

Pendulum 56 

Deluge 57 

Retrospect 58 

Glamour .59 

The Return 60 

Love's Tendril 61 

My Little Dreams 62 

[xii] 



1 



THE HEART OF A WOMAN 

The heart of a woman goes forth with the 

dawn, 
As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on, 
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam 
In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home. 

The heart of a woman falls back with the night, 
And enters some alien cage in its plight, 
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars 
While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering 
bars. 



[1] 



THE DREAMS OF THE DREAMER 

The dreams of the dreamer 
Are life-drops that pass 

The break in the heart 
To the souFs hour-glass. 



The songs of the singer 
Are tones that repeat 

The cry of the heart 
'Till it ceases to beat. 



[21 



GOSSAMER 

The peerless boon of innocence, 
The first in nature's Hst, 

Is fading, ere the rising sun 
The world awake has kist. 

The early dew upon the grass, 

The purity of morn, 
The glint that lies in virgin cheek. 

Frail cobwebs — of the dawn. 



[3] 



SYMPATHY 

My joy leaps with your ecstasy, 

In sympathy divine; 
The smiles that wreathe upon your lips. 

Find sentinels on mine: 

Your lightest sigh I'm echoing, 

I tremble with your pain, 
And all your tears are falling 

In my heart like bitter rain. 



[4] 



CONTEMPLATION 

We stand mute! 

No words can paint such fragile imagery, 

Those prismic gossamers that roll 

Beyond the sky-line of the soul; 

We stand mute! 



[5j 



DEAD LEAVES 

The breaking dead leaves 'neath my feet 
A plaintive melody repeat, 
Recalling shattered hopes that lie 
As relics of a bygone sky. 

Again I thread the mazy past, 
Back where the mounds are scattered fast - 
Oh! foolish tears, why do you start, 
To break of dead leaves in the heart? 



[6] 



DAWN 

Trailing night's sand-sifted stars, 
Rainbows sweep, as day unbars. 
Fragrant essences of morn, 
Bathe humanity — new-born I 



[7] 



ELEVATION 

There are highways in the soul, 
Heights like pyramids that rise 
Far beyond earth-veiled eyes, 
Sweeping through the barless skies 
O'er the line where daylight dies — 

There are highways in the soul! 



[8] 



PEACE 

I rest me deep within the wood, 

Drawn by its silent call, 
Far from the throbbing crowd of men 

On nature's breast I fall. 

My couch is sweet with blossoms fair, 

A bed of fragrant dreams, 
And soft upon my ear there falls 

The lullaby of streams. 

The tumult of my heart is stilled, 
Within this sheltered spot. 

Deep in the bosom of the wood. 
Forgetting, and — forgot 1 



19] 



WHITHER? 

Minutes swiftly throb and pass, 
Shadows cross the dial-glass, 

Speeding ever to some call, 
Weary world and shadows, all. 

Down the closing aisles of day, 
Tramping footsteps die away, 

But no tidings thread the gloom, 
From the hushed and silent tomb. 



[10] 



QUEST 

The phantom happiness I sought 
O'er every crag and moor; • 

I paused at every postern gate, 
And knocked at every door; 

In vain I searched the land and sea, 

E'en to the inmost core, 
The curtains of eternal night 

Descend — my search is o'er. 



[11] 



MATE 

Our separate winding ways we trod, 
Along the highways, unto God, 
Unbonded by the clasp of hand, 
Without a vow — we understand. 
Estranged for aye, the fusing kiss. 
Omnipotent, we bide in this — 
They need no trammeling of bars 
Whose souls were welded with the stars. 



[12] 



EMBLEMS 

A wordless kiss, a stifled sigh, 
A trembling lip, a downcast eye, 

Alas," they say, 

A-day, a-day," 
The cruse has failed, the lamp must die! 






[13] 



MIRRORED 

When lone and solitaire within your chamber, 
With lamp unlit, as evening shades unroll. 

If you reveal the trail your thoughts are taking, 
I then may read the riddle of your soul. 

For it is then, the tired mind unveiling, 
Drifts stark into the holy after-glow. 

Within the hour of quiet meditation. 

The tidal thoughts, like limpid waters, flow. 



[14] 



'•/ 



REPULSE 

Nobody cares when I am glad, 

I beat upon their hearts in glee, 

" Drink, drink joy's brimming cup with me," 

All echoless, my ecstasy — 
Nobody cares when I am glad. 

Nobody cares when I am sad, * 

Whene'er I seek compassion's breast, 
I falter wounded from my quest 
Back! back into my heart, sore prest — 

Nobody cares when I am sad. 



[15] 



QUERY 

Is she the sage who will not sip 
The cup love presses to her lip ? 
Or she who drinks the mad cup dry, 
And turns with smiling face — to die? 



[16] 



PENT 

The rain is falling steadily 

Upon the thirsty earth, 
While dry-eyed, I remain, and calm 

Amid my own heart's dearth. 

Break! break! ! ye flood-gates of my tears 

All pent in agony, 
Rain, rain! upon my scorching soul 

And flood it as the sea! ! 



[17] 



PAGES FROM LIFE 

Not for your tender eyes that shine, 
Nor for your red lips pulsing wine, 
I love you, dear: your soul divine. 
In sweet captivity, holds mine! 



The tender eyes have lost their glow, 
The flagons of the lips run low. 
The autumn trembles in the air, — 
A woman passes solitaire! 



[18] 



RECALL 

Winter — aback sweeps the inward eye, 
Fleet o'er the trail to a rose-wreathed sky, 
Girt by a cordon of dreams I dwell 
Deep in the heart of the old-time spell. 

Almost, the tones of your whispered word, 
Almost! the thrill that your dear lips stirred, 
Almost! ! that wild pulsing throb again — 
Almost! ! ! — 

('Tis winter, the falling rain). 



[19] 



GETHSEMANE 

Into the garden of sorrow, 

Some day we all must roam, 

If not to-day, then to-morrow, 

Bow 'neath its purple dome. 

Out from the musk-laden banqueting halls, 

Doffing our mirth-spangled vestments like 

thralls, 
Softly we wend to Gethsemane, 
In the hour that sorrow calls 1 



[20] 



IMPELLED 

Athwart the sky the great sun sails, 
Through seons thus, the daylight trails, 
And man, living breath of the sod 
Beholding, in his heart knows God. 

Throughout the night's long brooding deep, 
Earth's trustful children die-to-sleep. 
But with the whisperings of morn 
Awake, unto the day, new-born. 

The mystery of earth untold, 
The great infinite, none behold, 
Forge ever new the spiral chain, 
Revolving man to God again. 



[21] 



EVENTIDE 

The silence of the brooding night, 
Enfolds me with its eerie light; 
I lie upon its shadowed breast 
A pilgrim, wearying for rest 

Nightfall! thy sable curtains steep 
My very soul in solace deep, 
God sends thee with thy soothing balms, 
That I may falter to thy arms. 



[22] 



THRALL 

Fragile, tiny, just a sprite, 
Holding me a thrall bedight, 
Stronger than a giant's wand 
Serves the word of your command. 

Out from rushing worlds, though low 
Should you whisper, I would know, 
And would answer, though the breath 
Be the gateway unto death. 



[23] 



YOUTH 

The dew is on the grasses, dear, 

The blush is on the rose. 
And swift across our dial-youth, 

A shifting shadow goes. 

The primrose moments, lush with bliss, 

Exhale and fade away, 
Life may renew the Autumn time, 

But nevermore the May! 



[24] 



JOY 

There's a soft rosy glow o*er the whole world 

to-day, 
There's a freshness and fragrance that trembles 

in May, 
There's a lilt in the music that vibrates and 

thrills 
From the uttermost glades to the tops of the 

hills. 

Oh! I am so happy, my heart is so light. 

The shades and the shadows have vanished from 

sight, 
This wild pulsing gladness throbs like a sweet 

pain — 
O soul of me, drink, ere night falleth again! 



[25] 



POSTHUMOUS 

Of what avail the tardy showers, 
To the famished summer flowers ? 
All in vain the rain-drops cry, 
Dead things never make reply. 

Life's belated cup of bliss, 
Woo the weary lips to kiss, 
When the singing is a sigh. 
Pulses quivering, to die. 



[261 



OMEGA 

The fragile fabric of our dream 
Drifts as a feather down life's stream 
The long defile of empty days 
Grim silhouetted, mock my gaze. 

Though oft escapes the stifled sigh, 
A desert ever broods my eye — 
Since you have utterly forgot, 
God grant that I remember not! 



[27] 



TEARS AND KISSES 

There are tears sweet, refreshing like dewdrops 

that rise, 
There are tears far too deep for the lakes of the 

eyes. 

There are kisses like thistledown, fitfully sped, 
There are kisses that live in the hearts of the 
dead. 



[28] 



ISOLATION 

Alone! yes, evermore alone — isolate each his 

way, 
Though hand is echoing to hand vain sophistries 

of clay. 
Within that veiled, mystic place where bides the 

inmost soul, 
No twain shall pass while tides shall wax, nor 

changing seasons roll. 

Enisled, apart our pilgrimage, despite the arms 

that twine. 
Despite the fusing kiss that wields the magic 

charm of wine. 
Despite the interplay of sigh, the surge of 

sympathy. 
We tread in solitude remote, the trail of destiny! 



[29] 



WHERE ? 

I called you through the silent night 

Across the brooding deep, 
I sought you in the shadowland 

From out the world — asleep; 

No answer echoed to my call, 

And now my way I thread 
About the lowly mounds that rise 

Among the silent dead. 

Though voiceless, you will hear my call, 

Your soul will heed my cry. 
Will rise, and mock the prison where 

Your bones recumbent lie. 



[30] 



TIRED 

Fm tired, days and nights to me 
Drag on in slow monotony, 
With not a single star in sight 
To lend a gleam of cheering light. 

I'm tired, there are none to care 
That I am drifting to despair: 
O shadows! take me to your breast 
For I am tired — I would rest. 



[31] 



SMOTHERED FIRES 

A woman with a burning flame 
Deep covered through the years 

With ashes. Ah! she hid it deep, 
And smothered it with tears. 

Sometimes a baleful light would rise 

From out the dusky bed, 
And then the woman hushed it quick 

To slumber on, as dead. 

At last the weary war was done 

The tapers were alight, 
And with a sigh of victory 

She breathed a soft — good-night! 



[32] 



THE MEASURE 

Fierce is the conflict — the battle of eyes, 
Sure and unerring, the wordless replies, 
Challenges flash from their ambushing caves 
Men, by their glances, are masters or slaves. 



[33] 



> » 



INEVITABLY 

There's nothing in the world that clings 
As does a memory that stings; 
While happy hours fade and pass, 
Like shadows in a looking-glass. 



[34] 



MODULATIONS 

The petals of the faded rose 

Commingle silently, 
One with the atoms of the dust, / 

One with the chaliced sea. -' 



The essence of my fleeting youth 
Caught in the web of time, 

Exhales within the springing flowers 
Or breathes in love sublime. 






[35] 



MEMORY 

Love's roses I gathered, all dewy, in May, 
My heart holds the breath of their attar to-day; 
And now, while the blasts of the winter winds 

ring, 
I hear not the tempest, Tm dreaming of Spring. 



[36] 



RHYTHM 

Oh, my fancy teems with a world of dreams, — 

They revolve in a glittering fire, 
How they twirl and go with the tunes that flow 

On the breath of my soul-strung lyre. 



[37] 



GILEAD 

Walk within thy own heart's temple, child, and 

rest, 
What you seek abides forever in thy breast. 
Closer than thy folded arm 
Is the soul-renewing-balm, 
Walk within thy own heart's temple, child, and 

rest. 



[38] 



FOREDOOM 

Her life was dwarfed, and wed to blight, 
Her very days were shades of night, 
Her every dream was born entombed. 
Her soul, a bud, — that never bloomed. 



[39] 



WHENE'ER I LIFT MY EYES TO BLISS 

Whene'er I lift my eyes to bliss, 

I stagger blind with pain, 
Afar into the folding night 

The silence, and the rain. 

Whene'er I feel the urge of Spring, 

A throbbing, unknown woe 
Enfolds me; I am desolate 

When love is calling low. 



[40] 



DESPAIR 

The curtains of twilight are drawn in the west 

And vespers are sweet on the air, 
While I, through my leafless, ungarlanded way 

But pause at the gates of despair. 

Good-bye to the hopes that were never fulfilled, 
Good-bye to the fond dreams that failed. 

Good-bye to my dead that has never been born. 
Good-bye to love's ship that ne'er sailed. 



[41] 



WHEN I AM DEAD 

When I am dead, withhold, I pray, your bloom- 
ing legacy; 

Beneath the willows did I bide, and they should 
cover me; 

I longed for light and fragrance, and I sought 
them far and near, 

O, it would grieve me utterly, to find them on 
my bier! 



[42] 



SUPREME 

The fairest lips are those we kiss, 
With greatest ecstasy and bliss; 
The brightest eyes, are those that shine, 
Unchangingly through changing time; 
The greatest love is that we know. 
When life is just an afterglow. 



[43] 



IN QUEST 

With the first blush of morning, my soul is 

awing, 
Away o'er the phantom lands free, wandering, 
I seek thee in hamlet, in woodland, and hall. 
Till night-shades, enfolding my tired heart, fall. 

Yet ever and alway, like the thrush in a tree. 
My heart lifts its preluding love-song to thee; 
I call through the days, through the long weary 

years. 
And slumber at night-fall, refreshed by my 

tears. 



[44] 



RECOMPENSE 

Roses after rain, 

Pleasure after pain, 

Happiness will soothe the sigh, 

Smiles await the tear-dimmed eye 

Bloom will follow blight, 

Daylight trails the night, 

Life is sweeter 

Love is deeper 

In the heart's twilight! 



[45] 



POETRY 

Behold ! the living thrilling lines 

That course the blood like madd'ning wines, 

And leap with scintillating spray 

Across the guards of ecstasy. 

The flame that lights the lurid spell 

Springs from the soul's artesian well, 

Its fairy filament of art 

Entwines the fragments of a heart. 



[46] 



WHAT NEED HAVE I FOR MEMORY? 

What need have I for memory, 

When not a single flower 
Has bloomed within life's desert 

For me, one little hour. 

What need have I for memory 
Whose burning eyes have met 

The corse of unborn happiness 
Winding the trail regret? 



[47] 



A FANTASY 

I breathe the lyric of my love 

Across the twilit way, 
The gentle echoes bear it on 

Beyond the edge of day: 

All vibrant is the melody 

The silences repeat, 
My song is but my longing heart 

Pulsated with its beat. 

It winds amid the dusky ways 
Where far mysteries shine, 

To find amid God's trackless space, 
One answering song to mine. 



[48] 



SOUVENIR 

A little hour of sunshine, 

A little while of joy, 
We winnow in our harvesting 

From all the world's alloy. 

None, none, are so benighted, 
Who journey up life's hill. 

But have some treasured memory, 
Which lives all vibrant still. 



[49] 



ILLUSIONS 

Who hath not built his castles in the free and 

open air? 
Who hath not dreamed his rosy dreams, more 

fair than all the fair? 
Who hath not seen his castles fall, all scattered 

to the ground? 
Who bears his dream unshattered, from the 

dream-land where they're found? 



[50] 



TRANSPOSITIONS 

Smiles do not always echo cheer, 
Nor tear-drops measure grief, 

For sorrow seeks a gilded mask, 
And joy in tears, relief. 



[SI] 



THE WILLOW 

When life is young, without a care, 
Alone we walk, and free : 

The world, a splendid merry round 
Of rhythmic melody. 

Before the end, grim sorrow calls 

Into each mortal ear, 
When friendship fades to memories. 

And love lies in its bier. 

Then, then it is that sympathy 
Is holden close and dear; 

Ah, then life's consolation comes 
Commingled with a tear. 



[ 52 1 



DEVASTATION 

O love, you have shorn me, and rifled my heart, 
You have torn down the shrine from the inner- 
most part. 
And through it now rushes a grief, sadly-wild, 
That breaks as the plaint of a sorrowing child. 



[S3] 



SPRINGTIDE 

All deep there stirs the throb of Spring, 

Its vital pulse rm answering, 

Swift to its dominant I merge, 

One with its undulating surge; 

My heart awakes to virile tone 

And breaks — unanswered, and alone. 



[54] 



GLOAMTIDE 

The shades of the gloaming around me are 
stealing, 

The lure of the dusk through the silences call, 
While blossoming incense comes mutely appeal- 
ing. 

And choiring wood-voices, vespering, fall. 
Immersed in the deep of my dim sylvan-bower. 

Upborne on the breast of its emerald tide, 
I drift with the gleam of the vanishing hour 

Afar — where my uttermost longings abide. 



[55] 



PENDULUM 

I have swung to the uttermost reaches of pain, 
'Mid the echo of sighs, and a deluge of rain, 
But ah! I rebound to the limits of bliss. 
On the rapturous swing of an infinite kiss. 



[56] 



DELUGE 

A whisper at twilight, a sigh through the night, 
A strain of soft music, a perfume so light, 
Will sweep as a feather the bulwark of years, 
To surges of rapture, or rivers of tears. 



[57] 



RETROSPECT 

Love's kisses spurned so long ago, 
Dead as the years, that o'er them flow; 
And now, my gilded treasuries 
Would I might give — for memories. 



[58] 



GLAMOUR 

O come while youth's bright rosy veil 

Beguiles your eyes and mine, 
Let's tread the asphodel of bliss, 

And drink life's magic wine: 
Soon time will rend the gossamer, 

To wisdom's cruelty, 
While we are blind, my love, be kind, 

For soon, too soon, we see! 



[59] 



THE RETURN 

Again we meet — a flashing glance, 
And then, to scabbard, goes the lance, 
While thoughts troop on in cavalcade 
Adown the wide aisles time has made. 

Back in the glow of yesterday, 
With tender troth you rode away. 
The sheen of rainbows in our eyes, 
That swept the rim of other skies. 

And now a writhing worm am I, 
Beneath a doomed love's lensing eye, 
Let me but stagger, far from sight. 
To hide my anguish, in the night. 



160] 



M.. 



LOVE'S TENDRIL 

Sweeter far than lyric rune 
Is my baby's cooing tune; 
Brighter than the butterflies 
Are the gleams within her eyes; 
Firmer than an iron band 
Serves the zephyr of her hand; 
Deeper than the ocean's roll 
Sounds her heart-beat in my soul. 



[61] 



MY LITTLE DREAMS 

I'm folding up my little dreams 

Within my heart tonight, 
And praying I may soon forget 

The torture of their sight. 

For time's deft fingers scroll my brow 

With fell relentless art — 
I'm folding up my little dreams 

Tonight, within my heart. 



[62] 



^■*r 



^ 








